Shadi Ghadirian (born 1974 in Tehran, Iran) is a contemporary photographer living and working in Tehran.Her work is influenced by her experiences as a Muslim woman living in contemporary Iran, but her work also relates to the lives of women throughout the world.Through her work, she critically comments on the pushes and pulls between tradition and modernity for women living in Iran, as well as other contradictions that exist in everyday life.Inspired by 19th century photographs from the Ghajar period – the first portraits to be permitted by religious law – Ghadirian carefully reconstructed the opulent style of these images with the help of many friends: borrowing antique furnishings and costumes, commissioning the painted backdrops, inviting them to pose in the images.Ironically, the clothes worn by the sitters in the archival portraits are more revealing than what is acceptable for Iranian women to wear in public today.“I try to tell the different stories of Iranian women, which is somehow my own story too. I want to show a woman from different points of view.” the artist shares.“I’m not a sociologist, but I hope that when people see my photographs, they’ll understand the reality for women in Iran, then and now.”More of Shadi Ghadirian’s revealing photography can be found at https://www.shadighadirian.com/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadi_Ghadirian.